Antioch
Antioch Wrymthorne is the present Supreme Overseer of the Cult of the Thuzadin, and the Lich King's hallowed champion and agent to lead the Order in the execution of its goals. Although originally an esteemed and well learned Mage of the Kirin Tor of Dalaran, he has turned now his fervor for more eldritch sorcery to the benefit of the Frozen Throne. Reviling all mortality and feeling, Antioch's final transcendence was concluded by his transformation to become a Lich. With his powers of both Will and Unholy increased and the decay of mortality now beyond him, he presided over the Cult's affairs, guiding them with cold, calculating efficiency, totality and absolution. He and the remnants of the Thuzadin were ultimately defeated by heroes of the Alliance atop the necropolis of Zeramas after a destructive conflict. In the resulting chaos, the necropolis fell from the skies and was obliterated in the crash. The location or status of Antioch's phylactery remains unknown, although it was presumed destroyed. Biography Within Dalaran Antioch was the child of Andus and Delia Wrymthorne, distinguished yet ultimately arrogant and haughty scholars and arcanists within the order of the Kirin Tor. Born into such high standing, Antioch's time as a child was often fraught with strife and conflict as his parents ever pushed him to academic excellence and although he achieved all that was asked and more, his parents had set alight a new sensation deep within his consciousness - ambition. During this time Antioch found friendship and competetive spirit within fellow Mage and kinsmen, Neilas Hydrion, and the two soon grew a sense of comradery. Yet Antioch continued to ascend well beyond the scope of his class and yet ever hungered for more knowledge, more prestige and more power. As the two progressed, strife and conflict grew between them and although their friendship held firm, there was yet a lingering sense of unease between them. By the time Antioch had successfuly completed his teachings and training witihn the arts of the arcane and the more conventional forms of magics within the Kirin Tor, his hunger for yet more would not cease and soon turned his hand to the ebon tomes of the Dalaran Archives. It was there that he was drawn to the Fel incantations and complicated rituals of highly forbidden and dangerous Demon magics. It was not until the Death Knight champion, Prince Arthas Menethil with the unyeilding legions of the Scourge in his wake besieged the city of Dalaran itself, that Antioch came to witness the true scope of power he could weild. Gazing now to codex upon codex of demonological studies in the wake of the Scourge's dominion, he felt himself disgusted, reviled even at his own ignorance. He cast aside his research and work upon the arts of the Fel without hesistation and moved to pledge his unyeilding loyalty and fealty to the Frozen Throne. It was within the doomed City of Stratholme that the old friends, Antioch and Neilas Hydrion did meet yet again. Having forsaken all Light and turning towards the horrifying powers of the Scourge, Antioch had come forth to the city to bring about its ruin. Yet Neilas, presuming his old friend had died and fallen received his appearance within Stratholme with great shock. Greater still was his horror to realise of Antioch's path, as Neilas himself had turned to the powers of the Light to combat the encroaching legions of the Scourge. Although both tried to convince one another that their way and faith was flawed, they had reached an impasse that needed to be broken. The two engaged in a hateful battle within Stratholme’s burning streets, the knowledge learned from their childhood twisted in both polar opposites, Light and Dark. Loyalty to the Thuzadin Following Lordaeron’s fall, Antioch continued southwards under the guise of refugee, eventually slipping within the lands of Stormwind and integrating into its noble community with ease due to his well spoken disposition. Moving incognito, his intentions concealed, he continued in this way, observing the kingdom as it worked just as Kel’thuzad and his Acolytes had done before in Lordaeron. Antioch soon proved himself to be a respected and valued asset of the Cult, his knowledge and power increasing with every act of service he so willingly committed with relish and exhilaration. Hierarchy was of paramount importance to him, bowing to those above without question and crushing those beneath him without hesitation. It was in this way he thus ascended through the ranks of the Cult with haste, catching at the eyes of Cult Overseers’ Vikram Szpirglas, and Aceth Darkwallow who both came to further his knowledge in the arts of Shadow, Unholy and Deception. Antioch’s rise through the ranks was swift and it was not long before he himself were awarded with Aceth Darkwallow’s former position in his absence as he attended business within Icecrown. It was not until the grand assault of Stormwind orchestrated by the Salty Tide Privateers, the Cultists and their allies that Antioch did breathe his final mortal breath. Sweeping through the streets, slaughtering all that stood in their way, the Cult and its allies did battle across Stormwind as a destructive tide until at last they came before the Cathedral of Light and made preperations to twist the holy faith and its purpose to their will. In a final act of service to the Frozen Throne, Antioch and the Cultists made their way to the altar deep within its walls and began its ultimate corruption. Yet the Thuzadin's ultimate goal was not to be so, for in that hour did the masses of Stormwind rise against him, bursting through the main door of the cathedral and slaying the acolytes assisting him. Though he fought with zeal and fervor for his Dark Master and for the glorious exaltation of the Cult, Military, Mages and peasants alike threw themselves against his defences until he was at last overpowered and slain upon the very steps of the Altar of Light. Reborn from Death Yet this was not the end of him, and Antioch did know it, for although he viewed his potential as infinite, he knew he was by no means infallable. Exit strategies and counter plans were already in effect by the time of his death, and soon his remains were retrieved and taken the Ivory Tower itself - Kharazan. There within its most secretive of chambers, Vikram Szpirglas, his mentor and Overseer put into effect the ritual that would give rise to his dark rebirth as a horrific abomination of great unholy power, a Lich. Though the ritual itself took great time and preperation, even greater effort was pooled into the energies evoked during its course. Antioch's very own soul was transferred into a vessel known as a 'Phylactery', his mortality, feeling and emotion were stripped bare and disposed of. Looking now upon such things, he is reviled by them, viewing them as the very weakness and hindrance that brings about the frailty and ignorance of mortality. His very first act as one of the Lich King's exalted undead was to gaze down to his own chest. Feeling his own heart there, he recalled its purpose gradually. It was a pathetic organ, limping weakly against his chest. He was revolted by it. Without hesitation he plunged his own hand within his chest, pulled it forth, and cast it aside like filth. Even should his corporeal form now be destroyed by any means, the process by which he has ascended to Lichdom ensures that his demise is not permanent. In anchoring his soul to the Phylactery created during his transcendence, there is thus a means for his form to regenerate in time at the Phylactery’s location should his soul successfully return to it. Free in the knowledge that his defeat is neigh impossible unless the Phylactery is located and destroyed, he rules now with little fear of consequence The Hallowed Agent Following the results of the siege of Stormwind, the Cult of the Thuzadin’s strength and number were broken, many of its Cultists, including the present Hallowed One, Wimto Sprucklebolt, were either killed or fled into secrecy. Antioch himself, now empowered by his transcendence continued his service to the Lich King regardless of consequence. Yet it was not long before the Cult had slipped into a once again ‘dormant’ state and he infiltrated the newly awoken Cabal of Ruin in order to continue his work in secret, utilizing the Cabal itself as a means to carry out the Cult’s goals and gather a new force. For months he worked within the Cabal, his loyalty still fervently remaining with the Thuzadin as he began to woo its members and others amongst Stormwind’s kingdom with promises of power, knowledge and unity. He spread propaganda of the Scourge throughout both the Cabal and the Kingdom until once again as it was before, the Scourge division within the Cabal grew far superior to the others. The moment had arrived for Antioch to make his return, and with the members and cultists to which he had gathered and corrupted during his time within the Cabal, he betrayed the order as the Cruel Mistress Xariandra herself had done, and returned to re-establish the Cult, more powerful and with more followers than ever. Rekindling the fire of purpose and the Lich King’s will within the Cult, Antioch continued to sway more to their path and cause, ruling unofficially by the title of the Supreme Overseer. It was not until he himself sought an audience within the Chamber’s of Sword’s Rest within Icecrown Citadel itself that the Lich King bestowed upon him his blessing, and he ascended to become the Thuzadin's present Hallowed Agent. Personality and Appearance In life, Antioch was both calculating, ambitious and willfull. To his superiors he showed the utmost respect and obedience and to his peers and those beneath him there was only indifference, a vague acknowledgement, or even meglomanic tendancies. Although he would carry out his duties to the utmost precision and haste, and would never shirk from a task, he would always have an exit strategy prepared or know precisely when a battle was worthless. Beneath his polished, well spoken and haughty exterior, Antioch was at heart, a coward and he himself knew it. Yet there was little time for cowardice in his own eyes, no time for such a belittling weakness and it was as such that his hatred and disgust for all human emotion and feeling began to emerge. Now as a Lich, a creature of undeath he is without all conventional mortal feeling and emotion. Where he may appear to care for any one thing, this is either a facade, or it is truly because he sees a use and worth behind it. Though he appears to retain all manner of civility and cordiality even in undeath, it is all but a mask for his unyeilding cruelty and cold, calculating nature. Antioch sees the Scourge not only as a means by which to educate Azeroth, but to release them from the Curse of Flesh as it were, to aid them in their transcendence to the perfection that is undeath, free of the frailty and hindrance of emotion, feeling and morality. The boundaries between what is right and wrong have all since faded from his consciousness and now there exists only logic, fact and power. That which does not facilitate a means to increase in any of these things is without purpose and must be removed. However though he now lives eternally, and seemingly naught can crush, demoralise nor phase him, there still lingers, deep within the recesses of his blackened mind, the one emotion he could never truly rid himself of. Appearance and Disguise Antioch physically bears more of an appearance to that of a decayed skeleton. What little rotting flesh still clings to his claw like bones now hangs from it in rags, his decay quickened by extreme and frequent exposure to malign Necrotic energy. Antioch views living flesh as yet another flaw of mortality, merely acting as a hindrance and weakness. His decayed skull is now swarthed in a ragged black hood with his face both protected and concealed by the darkness within and by a large, 'beak-like' bone mask. His boney, clawed fingers are almost charred and blackened by the Necrotic and Shadowed energy he has weilded consistently since his transformation and it is a frequent delight of his to place those chilling, rotted talons upon someone and siphon either life from within them, or decay into them. Utilizing an Orb of Illusion, Antioch can take upon numerous different guises as he walks among the living. One of his most frequent is to don the appearance of his very antithesis - a Preist of the Light, yet the Orb has also been utilised to mimic that of a Nobleman and Mage of Dalaran. Gallery